By Elstun Lauesen Franklin C. Spinney was a staff analyst attached to the Department of Defense’s ASD/PA&E (Tactical Air Division). In 1991 he wrote an independent position paper on why the F-22 should not have been approved for engineering and development. His objections were two-fold: first, the production of the F-22 didn’t make strategic sense [...]

By Shannyn Moore “Those who don’t know history are destined to repeat it.” – Edmund Burke In 2006, the FBI raided the offices of legislators. Lawmakers were prosecuted for selling their votes to help pass Gov. Frank Murkowski’s Big Oil Bailout, the Petroleum Profits Tax (PPT). The PPT tied 85 percent of state revenue to [...]

Join me and author Amanda Coyne of Alaska Dispatch today at firedoglake.com for a book salon featuring the new release Crude Awakening – Money, Mavericks and Mayhem in Alaska by Coyne and co-author Tony Hopfinger. Details below. Hope to see you there! [Cross-posted from Alaska Dispatch] Jeanne Devon, AKA AK Muckraker, who runs the popular [...]

~Thick and fast they came at last, and more, and more, and more!   Neighbors and Cupcakes and Bears – Oh, my! For the faint of heart, and the thin of stomach lining, the ADN’s Julia O’Malley got a peek at the first episode of Sarah Palin’s Alaska, and she watched it so you don’t have [...]

AFN Diary: Day 3. Stop the Bullying and Let’s Be Family Again! By Elstun Lauesen This morning the long list of Resolutions were considered by the delegates and the Chairman of the AFN Resolutions Committee, Trefon Angasan asked if there were other matters to be brought before the body. A young man from Ft. Yukon, [...]

I love this ad – even the invocation of Ted Stevens at the end… It’s respectful, and even though it’s obvious that McAdams is a Democrat, it’s a recognition of someone who worked hard for the state. What do you think? This from the McAdams campaign: In the ad McAdams identifies priority issues for his [...]

In the spring of 2009, a smiling Ted Stevens surrounded by his equally smiling daughters graced the front page of the Anchorage Daily News. A federal judge had set aside a jury’s guilty verdict and the indictment against former Sen. Ted Stevens, then announced he was appointing a special prosecutor to investigate the government attorneys in the [...]

In Alaska, we don’t do anything “small.” Former Senator Ted Stevens, who passed away last week in a Dillingham plane crash, is being mourned for three days here in Anchorage.  (Jeanne discussed this earlier.) Monday, the actual funeral mass for the family and friends was held at Holy Family Cathedral (which, for those outside of [...]

Talking about the death of former Senator Ted Stevens is a bit like playing with  political napalm these days.  I got the call that Stevens’ plane might  have gone down at midnight Alaska time, which was 4am for me on the East coast where I was at the time.  I went to the Anchorage Daily [...]

            Ted Stevens and the Exploitation of Alaska Uncle Ted is Dead By STEVE CONN Alaska’s version of the Soviet’s Uncle Joe, our Uncle Ted, is dead. The wheel of fate rolled over him. He had survived dangerous air missions in World War Two, those “Over the Hump.” He had [...]

One wonders how much gall Sarah Palin can muster in the face of yet another Alaska tragedy. In the aftermath of the fatal plane crash in rugged western Alaska that took the lives of former U.S. Senator Ted Stevens and four others earlier this week, Palin described Stevens to her sycophantic Fox News colleague Greta [...]

~The wreckage from the plane crash Ted Stevens survived in 1978. I wrote a thank you note to Rachel after watching this coverage. There is so much unable to explain about Alaska. It’s why I have a T.I.A moment every day. This. Is. Alaska. Sometimes it’s good, sometimes it rips your guts out. For many [...]

  Palm Pilot to Nowhere Palin’s still on the palm thing.  At a speech in Orlando, she referenced yet again the infamous palm writing incident where she had to write the words “Energy, Tax Cuts, and Lift America’s Spirits” on her hand so she’d remember the three things she’d do if she were President of the [...]

As the sentencing for former Veco CEO Bill Allen looms, a new strand in the web of corruption that rocked Alaska’s political world has been discovered.  It’s not much of a discovery really, but it’s been made official.  Bill Allen has formally fessed up and admitted that his company gave gifts and payed for lavish [...]

  [clip from September, 2008] Everyone knows about the infamous “Bridge to Nowhere.”  Former Senator Ted Stevens, and current Congressman Don Young were the bridge’s main advocates in Washington D.C.  The project would have connected the City of Ketchikan (population 8000) to Gravina Island, location of the city’s airport and home to 50 people. In [...]